Square Enix Reveals Why They Haven't Remade Final Fantasy VII Yet

A Matter Of Pride

Square Enix has been oddly reticent when it comes to remaking Final Fantasy VII for the PS3, and CEO Yoichi Wada has explained exactly why. Apparently Square feels that this remake can only happen once they've released a new series entry that exceeds the classic RPG in terms of quality, else it would irreversibly damage the brand.

In an extraordinarily candid shareholders meeting, reported and translated by Andriasang, Wada admitted that Final Fantasy XIII, XIII-2 and XIV haven't met the high standards he expects from the series. As far as a Final Fantasy VII remake is concerned, the influential exec categorically stated that Square would need to release a new Final Fantasy that's superior or at least equal to the classic JRPG first, otherwise, the brand would become a laughing stock. I suppose that having your current-gen lineup bested by a game from 1998 would have that effect, not to mention that the remake would immediately become a self-defeating quality benchmark for future Final Fantasy titles.

However, Wada did suggest that the staff would be happy to develop a Final Fantasy VII remake, on the condition that the entire studio was dedicated to it. Don't hold your breath though.

Final Fantasy VII is soon headed to PlayStation Vita as a PSOne compatible title, and current rumours suggest that a Steam version may be on the cards.

If they want to make a popular FF game stop having ridiculously androgynous characters that no one cares about, don't ever do actual time travel ever ever ever again. Have a world map complete with an airship. Be done with paradigms. Get rid of Leona Lewis and finally just do the opposite to FFXIII.

real time doesn't have to be button mashing. It can mean you just need to make those decisions quickly.

In 13-2 I mainly didn't use the auto-battle system. Against a load of weaker enemies I would manually choose Thunderaga etc. then against the big ones it was a constant use of chosen spells and paradigm shifts (which I really liked in 13-2).

The first time I took on a long-gui in 13-2 I did it quite early on and the battle was well over an hour and I almost dies so many times... it really was an epic battle and you had to use a lot of skill to get through it - no button mashing involved!

Anyways, turn based is good, but real time can be just as good if done right.

The Paradigm/Crystarium system is an odd one. It's surprisingly deep, but only if you end up slogging it out against a boss. Against most minor foes it's merely a repetitive interlude.

The difficult thing for SE to realise is that in terms of JRPG mechanics, the Materia system was practically perfect - it had the perfect balance of accessibility and depth, offered up a staggering array of strategic permutations, and allowed for fantastic character customisation. It has NEVER been bettered in this genre, in my opinion.

If they could find a way to marry Materia with an advanced ATB system then they wouldn't need to remake FFVII, I believe they could genuinely better it.

Instead, Square keep pumping their money into trying to forget FFVII, when they should be looking to build upon it. Few of the games in recent years have had the complete package that FFVII did. FFX had the story, but was perhaps too rigid. FFXII had a fantastic open world and offered up Western levels of freedom, but the Gambit system was controversial, and the story and characters pretty weak. FFXIII was extraordinarily pretty, and had some nice ideas, but wouldn't let you get to them until you'd played 20 hours of it.

I can understand Square's stubbornness, but it goes too far. Imagine if they looked at those games above and said "Right, let's take Materia and the slots system, but tweak it a bit and give it a different name; we'll add in a love story that crosses several dimensions has a twist, you have to fight Death maybe and try to make people cry; let's give players a huge open world to explore and allow you to capture monsters. Oh, and towns. Let's have some of those."

I'd buy the **** out of that.

Should probably have just written a mini article on this really. Maybe I still will. Ho hum.